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Harvey
04-10-2014, 12:45 PM
Hey first post for 6 months as we have sold up in Melbourne over summer and moved to north east Victoria (Kiewa Valley)over winter for the lifestyle. Want to get business back up and running but theres already a few mowing guys in town and having trouble getting my name out there. Find most homeowners here mow themselves or know a guy that does it so im thinking of using the gardening side of things to build up customers

Anyone got any ideas for marketing to entice people to switch to me without undercutting? There isn't really a local paper that gets delivered and the community business directory doesn't come out til January. No postal service so no one has letterboxes.

Albury Wodonga is 45mins so that's a possiblility to travel and spend day there but the thought of driving in there for a 1 hour job puts me off, or if someone just wants a quote. I guess that has to be done and just letterbox drop the rest of the day to get more customers to fill up a few days. Might put an ad the paper.

Anyway just interested if any guys here are in small towns and how did you get a foot in the door?
Cheers

bb1
04-10-2014, 07:29 PM
You could use the Australia Post Unaddressed mail services, may have changed names. But when I had a small ruralish town, I could get 800 flyers out for about $75.00. In my case t went to the street letter boxes, and all Post office boxes, so if you looking at a small distribution area it is worthwhile.

You just supply them with the flyers and the dollars and they get it out which in your case will be all the PO boxes.

And the thing I found with the small community, they keep the flyers, I had phone calls up to 3 years after I last put one out, and if you mention that you are local, they are loyal.

May be worth investigating.

Harvey
04-10-2014, 09:43 PM
Just looked up unaddressed mail as I had no idea we could do that, seems like a good option, will get to everyones po boxes. 1000 is around $170 from what I can see so will enquire more during the week. Thanks for that

bb1
04-10-2014, 10:07 PM
Gee that has gone up was 8cents an item when I did it.

Also if you look at the website, they say you need to book thru HQ and it can take up to 3 weeks. In my case I just went into the Post Office and the owner just booked it in for me and they were out within a couple of days. It will just depend on your local owner, but often the smaller PO's are happy to look after you, rather than make you go through the formal stuff,

imoww
05-10-2014, 12:49 AM
Try body corp work. Allot of small towns have
Property's managed by strata companies.

Harvey
05-10-2014, 09:26 AM
Thanks imoww, just found some body corps in Albury Wodonga which serve the area so will pay them a visit or send email

Harvey
07-10-2014, 09:29 AM
Got unaddressed mail sorted, the post office just wants them handed over and they go out the next day, no 3 week wait like the website says, so that will cover my local town and am organising ad in albury Wodonga paper so will see how many calls that gets and do all the quotes on one day. Also spoke to real estate agents in town and put a4 flyers up in general stores. Hope it all goes well

head1956
07-10-2014, 10:19 AM
Good luck Harvey its hard trying to kick off a new business as well as pay the bills etc Should do alright around the bigger towns like Albury Wodonga with the right advertising though hope the weather holds for you as well..

Harvey
07-10-2014, 08:16 PM
Thanks mate, that's the hardest part about moving to new area, you still have bills to pay but it takes time to fill up even half a week. Seen a few guys mowing in town so will stop and chat to them next time around to see if they have excess

RSM-Gazza
08-10-2014, 07:23 PM
Harvey,

Best of Luck in getting it all together.
I launched in your area with a mega plus advertising campaign targeting the weekly paper in the back section weekly. Plus large full color inserts more detailed and photographic fortnightly inserts on pensioner pay weeks. Even a Quarter page sized feature within a business feature with three other business. The nervous launch was a few days prior to Sept 2010.
All feature adverts I stipulated to be on the right side of opening a newspaper page and no further back than page 9. This ran for 12 weeks, but averts every fortnight as mentioned, plus a full color 1 unit in the Yellow Pages for 2 years.
All adverts were themed the same in design and color formated to match my Trailer signage. Customer recognition was my thought process.

Was booked out in 12 weeks for my experience level at the time and had to pull out off the everyweek smaller adverts from the trades section of the papers as the phone just would not stop ringing. Just couldn't get work done or drive from a to b due to the bl**dy phone ringing mainly in the mornings.
Yes, it cost a few G's but it got me out there of my bum quicker than "Speedy Gonzales".

Ok that maybe not what everyone can budget for. But I don't advertise anymore since those days and the phone still rings.
There's heaps of work in our town, is the point I'm getting at and there are heaps and heaps of Jimbo's and heaps of everybody else. (We are all friendly to each other and I have not heard of low balling going on for a while now - great).
I forgot my 4 witches hat at the Wodonga tip once and an 1 hr later a Jim's turns up at my house and drops them off. Lucky it was one of three Jim's who knew where I lived.
But still there's more work available than workers. We have the perfect capture demographics in a rather limited tight travel area, advertise once and you capture both cities + surrounds. Talk to one person and they know people in both cities. Park your rig and people from both sides of the Border see it and potentially a call will come from it. There are several key arterial streets/roads in both cities that if you work in or park your rig within, calls will come from just being there. That's provided you have easy to read signage on the rig.

All the best, our season is long and winter is short and BELIEVE ME SUMMER IS BL**DY HOT with temp's everyday 38 to 43 and if it doesn't rain you need to work towards a mix of clients who can afford a $900-$1,000 quarterly summer water bill and the work continues on. Even if you feel like your working in Dubai, but the positive is how good that first and second cold beer tastes when you get home to cleanse the grit out of your mouth.... :)

DavidS
13-10-2014, 08:27 PM
Harvey, make up some flyers and go see the local takeaways and ask if you can leave them on their counters. I had lots of clients contact me from these as they all get takeaway at sometime, rest is word of mouth from others who have picked up your flyer. Also put up ads in local supermarkets community board, usually you have to put them up every month as the supermarket remove them at end of month. This is how I started off in a small country town, plus letterbox drops.

Harvey
14-10-2014, 07:29 AM
Thanks DavidS, I just got some flyers printed so will see where I can leave them

Gazza, All good points. I think I need to travel into albury Wodonga to get more jobs so might see you around. I'll pm you for more localised info

glassngrass
14-10-2014, 11:52 AM
You want locals to support you? Then support the locals....
Often country folk are wary of newcomers/city slickers.
Introduce yourself to the local shop keepers - buy their stuff, ask if you can leave some of your cards/flyer on notice board.
This is as good as an introduction to the rest of the community by their trusted stores...

Arfa Brayne
15-10-2014, 05:27 PM
You want locals to support you? Then support the locals....
Often country folk are wary of newcomers/city slickers.
Introduce yourself to the local shop keepers - buy their stuff, ask if you can leave some of your cards/flyer on notice board.
This is as good as an introduction to the rest of the community by their trusted stores...

Go to the local church, join one of the local service clubs, play on one of the local sport teams, have a beer down the pub/club every friday - become a local. (it takes a while)

I grew up in small country towns - locals do business with locals.

You up around Mt Beauty or closer to Wang/Albury?

Harvey
15-10-2014, 06:46 PM
Yeah Arfa Mt Beauty, nice spot, lifestyle should be better here than in city, just need to get in with the locals so they give me a go. Im slowly checking out all the shops nearby and the pub and getting to know people so it should get better the longer im here socialising

Arfa Brayne
18-10-2014, 10:59 AM
Yeah Arfa Mt Beauty, nice spot, lifestyle should be better here than in city, just need to get in with the locals so they give me a go. Im slowly checking out all the shops nearby and the pub and getting to know people so it should get better the longer im here socialising

Funny, the wife and I almost moved the family there about 5 years ago, but the property market swung right around and made it financially un wise - the name really suits the town.
One of the best places in Australia.
See if you can pick up a bit of work at the tea plantation on the south of town. Over winter it might pay to do some bus driving or ski field work. There is also a bit of work doing farm fencing and stuff. If you can weld or do mechanical repairs you should score some work on the farms too. Being rural it doesn't pay as well as city work, but the barter system (swap some eggs for tomatoes and the like) makes living costs cheap and builds your community contacts / value.

Envious ! :)